Remember these? Chianti with a nice straw bottom?
That was the Chianti of my youth.
At first, I thought the straw was a distinctive element, reserved for a special wine. Then, I started to realize that much of the Chianti (with straw) was not that good. And then I stopped drinking it.
In a previous blog, I alluded to a visit to Rome a couple of years ago. While there, I did my best to drink a fair bit of wine and some variety as well. Near the apartment we were staying (in Trastevere), there was a little grocery story run by, I think, Pakistanis. Their selection of wines was not extensive or fancy but for a few Euros, we could buy a decent bottle of Chianti.
The nice thing about Rome is that most of what you want to see is in a fairly compact area. We walked everywhere during our 10 day stay. It was a wonderful way to see such a unique and archetypal city and so we walked and walked and walked. Every day, it seemed like we walked for three or four hours.
At the end of the day, sometimes we would go out for a wonderful meal - usually pasta with a shared appetizer and possibly dessert as well as a bottle of wine.
But, sometimes, we were exhausted with all of our walking and all we wanted to do was have a seat and talk about our exciting day. On those days we would go to the local take out pizza place, choose a couple of different types of pizza pieces, and then stop at that Pakistani grocery store for a cheap, but tasty, bottle of Chianti. It was delizioso!
While preparing to take the WSET course, I discovered a couple of things about Chianti...
- Chianti is not a grape, but is a region - it is actually made from sangiovese grape (true fact - years ago, when visiting with my - at the time - little kids, I saw signs for Chianti at a bus stop that we were taking photos. I just figured the region was named after the grape!).
- Chianti, the stuff I had bought at home, was the lower quality wine - the higher quality wine is called Chianti Classico.
Today, back and the Dundarave Wine Merchant, I looked around while my wife shopped for some non-wine product at a clothing store. Unfortunately, the guy behind the till was not the same as a couple of weeks ago so I felt a bit on my own. I looked through Bordeaux wines, Burgundy, and some French whites but eventually found myself looking at the Italian wines. I thought, why not try the Chianti Classico - something I had never done before!
The wine I tried was a Santa Margherita Chianti Classico ($28). It was a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) wine which is the highest category in Italy.
Taking out my snazzy WSET Level 2 tasting card, I first looked carefully at the wine, It was a clear wine with light intensity and a ruby colour. On the nose, it showed red fruit, red cherry and some jamminess. Once I tasted it, I noticed more red fruit, strong plum flavour, a bit of strawberry and some raisin. There were, I think, medium tannins, which really made the wine well rounded and enjoyable. It had medium acidity and a medium finish.
It was another amazing pizza wine (we had left over pizza from last night) and would also go with BBQ and pork. It actually seemed like a pretty versatile wine but had some nice punch with the tannins. Maybe next time I should grab a bottle of Chianti to compare - just not the one with the straw bottom.....